


We Dream in Blue

by SLq



Category: Hannibal (TV), Sex Therapist (Manga), X -エックス- | X/1999
Genre: M/M, Sex is good for the soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 23:18:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12641346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLq/pseuds/SLq
Summary: Sex heals. In Bar Kain, grief and heartache are erased and dreams realized, if only for a night.Kain is a master at bringing others pleasure. He tends to broken hearts and broken men, trying his best to fit the pieces back together. His own wants have fallen by the wayside.Until now.The man doesn't speak. He studies Kain with foreign eyes. Kain has never seen blue that pale and cold. Kain's smile grows, blooming into something more genuine."You run a strange business, Kain.""I prefer niche," Kain says.





	We Dream in Blue

The man comes to him as day is smudging into dusk. He stands in the doorway for a long moment. The dying sun spills inside around him, tracing his body in lines of red.

"Welcome to Bar Kain," Kain greets.

The man walks inside. Another man follows a step behind, very obviously Yakuza. Kain sets two glasses on the counter.

"What would you like?"

The man doesn't speak. He studies Kain with foreign eyes. Kain has never seen blue that pale and cold. Kain's smile grows, blooming into something more genuine.

"You run a strange business, Kain."

"I prefer _niche_ ," Kain says.

The man's expression is yet to shift into anything discernible. His mind is opaque, resistant to Kain's gift. Kain thrills. Clients of this man's ilk are rare, and to be savored.

"My name is Yoshiro Akagi," the man says. "I have a business proposition for you."

The situation realigns. Kain marvels at his own disappointment. "Forgive me, but I must decline."

"You are yet to hear the terms."

"I must decline," Kain repeats.

Akagi watches him. Kain holds those frozen eyes and frost seeps into his blood, turns his mind sluggish. Incense is heavy on his tongue. Its scent has changed at some point, after Akagi had walked in.

"Wait outside," Akagi says.

The henchman bows and leaves. Akagi walks closer. Kain braces against the bar and leans forward. His earring taps over his throat, the pointed end of the inverted cross digging into skin. Akagi's eyes flick there briefly. They are darker when they return to Kain's. 

"Refusal is not an option. You are infringing on our territory."

"I am sure that is not the case."

"You sell sex," Akagi says.

Kain can't help the sultry curl of his mouth. Sex is air in Bar Kain, combustive when shared. "I sell my services as a therapist."

Akagi takes out a pack of cigarettes and taps out a stick. Kain produces a lighter before the man can, heavy silver engraved with a twisting serpent. "May I?"

Akagi places the cigarette between his lips. Kain leans over the counter. The flickering flame throws shadows across their faces and warms their lips. The smell of incense is minutely diluted by the thick scent of smoke. Kain inhales deeply, eyes lidding with pleasure.

"Would you like one?" Akagi asks.

Kain shakes his head. "I quit."

Akagi watches him with that blank face. Kain looks back at him, calm. He takes his fill of the man's strong features - Japanese but not, the differences subtle enough to be discarded were it not for those eyes. The result is uncanny. A warped version of the familiar, the thwarting of expectations.

Kain is delighted.

"What kind of services do you offer?"

"Whatever my clients need."

"Sexually."

"Often, but not always." Kain thinks of his last client, a young man mourning the passing of a lover. He had wanted to be treasured by the man he had lost one last time. Kain had held him through his tears. That had been all, and it had been enough. "Men come to me for guidance."

"And sex," Akagi says.

" _Mind_ - _blowing_ sex," Kain purrs.

Akagi's lips twitch up. "The issue remains, Mr. Kain. You sell your body, and you do so on our territory. This poses a conflict of interests."

"The bar has been open for years."

"I find it more useful to focus on the present."

Kain falls silent. His fingers stray to his earring as he thinks. Akagi's eyes chase them, and there is nothing cold about them now.

"How did you find my bar, Mr. Akagi?" Kain asks, throaty, desire warm in his belly.

Akagi opens his mouth. His hesitation is obvious in its rarity for what Kain had seen of the man's character. Kain's fingers slip down his own neck. Blue eyes follow them, their focus intense and predatory. The air is thick with danger. Kain places his elbows on the counter and leans in.

"Who do you see," he asks, mouth soft and open. "Who do you see, when you look at me?"

Akagi puffs a plume of smoke over Kain's lips. Kain swallows it, takes it into his lungs and breathes it out again. Akagi watches him.

The cigarette is ground out. Akagi rises from his seat. "I will be back for your answer."

"Until then," Kain calls after him.

Anticipation tastes almost as good as cigarettes.

 

* * *

 

 

Akagi comes three days later.

Kain is with a client in the back. A lovely young man, made bitter by grief but still so very sweet at heart. Kain had kissed the tears from his cheeks, sucked marks into his neck, traced the scars on his hands with his tongue. The man moans and gasps and pleads with his entire body. He has never had pleasure of this kind. Kain intends to spoil him rotten.

He has his mouth on the man's cock when he feels it - the weight of a soul inside the bar. Kain falters. This has never happened before. Not when Kain is already occupied and unable to welcome a guest inside.

"S-Seishirou?"

Dazed green eyes watch Kain from a flushed face. Kain hollows his cheeks, relishing his lover's soft cry. He gives the head a last, loving suck, and prowls up the man's shivering body. So very sensitive. Gentle hands cradle Kain's head and angle him down, to a waiting mouth.

So very kind.

"Do you love me, Subaru?" Kain asks.

"Yes," Subaru gasps. His eyes are closed. His cheeks are wet again, and it's almost too much for Kain to take. He doesn't like the man he is right now. Doesn't like the way he looks at Subaru, the way he maps Subaru's body with possessive hands.

"Turn over for me, yes, like that."

Subaru buries his face in a pillow. It doesn't do much to smother the noises he makes when Kain licks into him, tongue and lips working to turn the man's body into a needy mess. Subaru's long legs are braced on either side of Kain, toes curled, cock heavy between his thighs. Kain touches him everywhere. He puts his fingers in him, as many as he can take. When he draws away, Subaru whimpers in despair. The man's body is swollen with pleasure and clenches at nothing.

"Shh. You are ready now. Do you want this?"

"Yes."

"Do you want me? As I am?"

Subaru's breaths are hitched. "Yes," he says at last, low, voice threaded through with sorrow.

Kain pushes in. Subaru is ready but he is still tight, still a little scared. Kain covers him with his body, his chest to Subaru's back. He doesn't stop until there is nowhere further to go, until all of him is in Subaru. It is what Subaru wants. He holds still then, kisses the naked slope of Subaru's neck and wraps a hand around his cock, touch light. The tension in Subaru's body unspools little by little.

"Now," Subaru whispers.

Kain thrusts. Shallow at first, then deeper, harder, emboldened by Subaru's rising cries and the mind of the man whose skin he currently wears. "Mine," he growls, "Mine, you are _mine_ ," and Subaru sobs in agreement, hips pushing back, body pleading for more.

"Seishirou," Subaru gasps, and comes.

Kain wraps his hand around the back of Subaru's neck and pushes him down. His last few thrusts are brutal. Subaru needs to feel this, feel him. Kain gives him what he wants. He spends himself with a growl and his teeth in Subaru's shoulder.

It is quiet, after. Kain runs a bath for Subaru, helps the man through washing and dressing and putting himself back together. There is another exit in the back. Kain leads Subaru to it, then stops the man before he can leave.

"It doesn't have to be him," Kain tells Subaru. It's a lie, and they both know it.

Subaru smiles, small and sad. He kisses Kain so softly it brings tears to Kain's eyes.

"Thank you."

Subaru leaves. Kain closes the door behind him. He punches a wall, hard.

Akagi is waiting for him when he goes out to the bar. Kain hadn't exactly forgotten, but the sight of him is still jarring. The time he had spent with Subaru feels like a fevered dream. Kain wipes at his cheeks with the back of his hand, embarrassed to be caught this undone.

"Good afternoon. Can I interest you in something to drink?" he asks.

"Your hand is bleeding."

"Oh?" Kain takes a look and yes, there is blood and torn skin and what looks like the beginning of a nasty bruise over his knuckles. The dull throb of pain he had been ignoring sharpens into a hot sting.

"You won't need to put up with that kind of behavior, when you're ours," Akagi says.

It takes Kain a moment to understand what the man means. He laughs a little too loud and hard. The tears he brushes away aren't entirely from mirth.

Akagi puts his cigarette out and stands. "Come."

Kain blinks. "Are you abducting me? If so, you are going about it wrong."

"We will talk over lunch."

"Oh, _will_ we?"

Akagi's expression doesn't shift. Kain stands about a minute of the man's staring before he gives in.

"You're paying."

There is a black car out front, and a tattooed driver waiting on the sidewalk. It's all so over the top. Kain giggles when he sees the built-in bar. Akagi looks at him like he is cracked in the head. Kain feels not all there himself.

The car drops them off in front of a flashy Italian restaurant, the kind that books full weeks in advance. Akagi is shown in right away. The host doesn't dare look twice at anything, including Kain's debauched state.

"I feel like a whore," Kain comments while they're looking over the wine menu.

Their waiter trips. Akagi-

Akagi _laughs_.

Kain stares at the man. He remembers himself eventually, but his eyes keep straying over the course of the meal. They don't talk much. Akagi hardly talks at all, which leaves Kain filling the silence. Kain's life is his work, so he tells Akagi about that. It goes only slightly better than the first time he had tried.

"A sex therapist," Akagi repeats. Kain finds the skeptical curl of the man's mouth delightful.

"Yes. I strip pain and grief away, until only pleasure remains."

Akagi drinks his wine. Kain hears laughter in the man's silence.

"You don't believe me."

"No," Akagi agrees.

Their waiter returns. Kain's eyes cut to the young man, fix on his flushed cheeks and bright eyes. "Allow me to demonstrate," he says to Akagi.

"As you wish."

The waiter is in the process of arranging an array of appetizers on the table.  He stands at Kain's elbow, hands graceful and quick. Kain catches one of them. The young man freezes. Wide brown eyes dart to Kain's. In that instant of connection, Kain knows him. His name is Wataru. He works three part-time jobs, has a younger sister, dreams of becoming a writer. The man Wataru loves is called Ryo Satoshi. He owns a bookstore. Kain sees the man through Wataru's eyes and loves him, too.

"Are you feeling well, Wataru?"

Wataru sways. Kain stands to support him, arm slipping around his waist. "You seem flushed. Working too hard again?"

"I - Mr. Sa-Satoshi, how...?"

Kain leans in. Wataru tips his head up, eyes wide, lips parted.

"Call me Ryo."

Wataru sighs the name against Kain's mouth. His eyes slip shut, expression softening in bliss.

Kain breaks them apart gently. "You should have more confidence in yourself, Wataru," he tells him.

Wataru swallows. He bows his head and rubs at his eyes, voice a whisper. "I - thank you. Thank you."

Wataru bows and leaves. Kain turns to Akagi with an expectant look. The naked hunger in Akagi's gaze steals Kain's breath. Akagi's eyes slip to Kain's mouth, still wet from Wataru's attention. Kain thinks of crawling over the table and biting the man.

"I do hope he comes back with the rest of our food," Akagi drawls.

Kain laughs. The tension between them snaps and fizzles, still there but no longer a spark away from igniting. Wataru does come back. He looks dazed, and happy. Akagi watches Kain with a thoughtful air. Kain eats. The grief he had taken from Subaru melts away, little by little.

 

* * *

 

Akagi visits again the following week, twice the week after. Kain loses count after that. They go to a restaurant owned by Akagi's group for dinner, one night among a number shared. It's a nice place, classier and quieter than Kain would have expected from an establishment frequented by gang lords. The hostesses are attentive without simpering. They seem content in their work.

"I'm still not joining your group," Kain tells Akagi, after.

Akagi smirks at him. Kain rolls his eyes, and demands they go for ice cream.

"You are dating," Tsuzuki says when Kain finally tells his friend of the unexpected visitor, and everything that had followed. Kain would have protested the disbelief in Tsuzuki's voice if he weren't busy choking to death on his tea.

"We - what- we haven't even slept together!"

"Exactly!" Tsuzuki says.

Like that even makes _sense_. But Kain can't _not_ think of it now, ridiculous as the notion is. It has him anxious and jumpy and _expectant_. He resolves to clear the air with Akagi when he next sees the man. Akagi is not the sort to take offense at this kind of thing. If anything, the question would amuse him.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time Kain sees Akagi, Kain is getting fucked stupid over the bar counter and Akagi looks like hell.

It takes Kain several moments to realize he's not imagining Akagi in the doorway. It's raining outside. The man fucking Kain is lost in regret and pleasure. His back is to Akagi. Even had it not been, Kain doubts he would have noticed anything but the man he thinks beneath him. Kain moans at every thrust, unable to keep quiet, too full with feeling and half not himself. "Will," the man breathes in Kain's ear, "Will, _Will_." Kain arches into the man's broad chest, calls his name in a broken whisper.

The man bears him down and thrusts harder, desperate, grasping at a shadow. Kain feels conquered. His eyes are on Akagi, and Akagi's are on him. Hannibal's hunger and pain and want crest over him. He drowns in cold blue.

When Kain comes to, Hannibal is gone. Akagi sits in his usual chair. Kain is curled on the tiny couch that occupies the space the bar doesn't. There is a coat over him. Kain presses his face to the fabric, still dazed. Akagi's scent fills his nose.

"That man was dangerous."

Kain looks up. Akagi sits with his back to him. The set of his shoulders is all wrong. Tense. Kain smiles. His chest hurts, an old pain.

"So are you. So are most men." Akagi says nothing. "Can't bear to look at me?" Kain snaps.

Akagi stands. He stalks to the couch and kneels at Kain's feet, brings their faces close. His eyes aren't cold at all, Kain thinks. His mouth burns. Kain moans into the wet, dirty kiss. Akagi's inside him and around him and Kain doesn't want to let him go.

"You saw," Kain gasps when they break apart, "You saw, and you still want-"

"I killed a man today," Akagi cuts him off.

Kain pulls him into another kiss. The stiff line of Akagi's lips softens under Kain's attention. Kain leans back and Akagi chases him, presses him into the couch and covers him with his body. Kain's breath stutters in relief.

"I want you," Akagi says in the warm, dark space between them.

Kain's heart is in his throat. "I won't give up the bar. This is who I am."

"I want you," Akagi repeats. There is not a shade of doubt in him, no disgust, no judgment. Kain wants, wants so much, wants _everything_. It terrifies him.

"Who do you see, when you look at me?" Kain whispers.

Akagi draws back. He looks at Kain, focused, intense.

"I never saw anyone but you," he says at last.

Kain's laugh breaks into a sob. Akagi kisses it off his lips.

Outside, the rain falls and falls. Tokyo, for once, rests.


End file.
